Don’t Change the Subject
Moshe assembled the entire congregation of the Bnei Yisroel and he said to them... (Shemos 35:1). That’s how Parshas Vayakhel begins: Everything we read in Terumah and Tetzaveh was said to Moshe on Har Sinai, and now Moshe gathered the nation together to give over to them all the details of building the Mishkan that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had commanded him.
And yet we find something strange here: Instead of talking about the Mishkan, Moshe Rabbeinu veers off course – at least it appears so – and he introduces an altogether different subject: “These are the matters that Hashem commanded you to do...”. Which matters? The bigdei kehunah? The keilim of the Mishkan? No. Six days work may be done, and on the seventh day shall be for you a holiness, a Shabbos Shabboson to Hashem (ibid. 35:2).
And so, that’s a question because what is Shabbos doing here? We gathered around Moshe Rabbeinu to begin our preparations for building the Mishkan, not to hear a Shabbos drashah. We’re thinking now about the glorious ideal of building a place where the Presence of Hashem will live among us and Moshe is talking about keeping Shabbos?
A More Important Subject
The answer is that Moshe was saying like this. Despite the fact that we’re going to be busy building the Mishkan, despite the fact that I’ve been saying, V’asisa, V’asisa – “You should make this for the Mishkan and you should make that for the Mishkan” – all those instructions are only for the six days of the workweek.
Yom rishon, very good – build. Yom sheini, same thing. Yom shlishi and so on, keep up the good work of building the Mishkan. But when it comes to the seventh day of the week, when the sun goes down on Friday afternoon everything must come to a halt and it should be for you a day of holiness (ibid.)
“Don’t worry about the Mishkan that you’re building for Me” says Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “because there’s something that I want you to build that is more important even than that. I want you to build a Shabbos Mishkan, the Sanctuary of Shabbos. And therefore this detour that Moshe Rabbeinu is taking, is intended to demonstrate that despite the vast importance of building a Mishkan where My Presence will rest, I want you to know that it is the Shabbos that is the first and most important ‘Sanctuary’ to be built.”
Entering the Sanctuary
It’s a startling idea! It boggles the mind! It means that every seventh day, as the sun goes down, the Am Yisroel enters into a Beis Hamikdash even more important than the Mishkan that was built in the Wilderness, more holy than the Beis Hamikdash in Yerushalayim.
Imagine that we had a Beis Hamikdash today or that we were back in the ancient times when the Beis Hamikdash stood on the Har Habayis and let’s say you were zocheh to come into the azarah. How would you enter into such a holy place? It’s the Home of Hashem, the holiest place in the world. You wouldn’t just waltz in — you would come in with great awe as if entering the palace of a mighty king.
That’s one of the reasons the Levi’im were stationed as guards around its walls – to create that aura of holiness. When somebody tried to approach the Beis Hamikdash, the guards asked him, “Are you tamei? Did you go to the mikveh? Did you have haza’ah if you were a tamei meis?” You couldn’t just step inside willy-nilly. You had to pass an interrogation before you could walk into the precincts of the Beis Hamikdash. And therefore, when someone approached the Har Habayis, he did it with the greatest trepidation, with the greatest preparation.
Entering the Sanctuary of Time
And so when we enter Shabbos it’s exactly the same. Hakadosh Baruch Hu declares that the twenty-four hours of Shabbos is a Beis Hamikdash. Although it’s not a sanctuary in space; you can’t point at a specific spot – “Over there is the holy Shabbos” – but it’s a sanctuary in time. That’s a chiddush of the Torah that time also possesses kedushah.
You know, we’re used to the idea of separating between different types of objects, some things are more holy than others, and between different types of people, some people are more holy than others; but the Torah declares that when it comes to time too, some times are more kadosh than others. To the untrained eye it might appear like any other day – Shabbos has an evening and a morning and an afternoon just like Tuesday does – but actually there’s a world of difference. About the Shabbos we say, those hours of Shabbos are more holy than any other time of the year, even more than Neilah on Yom Kippur.
And therefore the first feeling when Shabbos comes is that you are entering a Sanctuary. You can’t come into the Shabbos like you come into a Tuesday! You need a certain frame of mind, a certain preparation of the thoughts, before you come into a time of holiness.
Bigdei Kehunah for Everyone
That’s why we do certain things before the Shabbos comes – in order to prepare our minds for the kedushah that’s coming. The Gemara (Shabbos 114a) says, How do I know from the Torah that you must change your garments for Shabbos? So the Gemara doesn’t bring just a sevara, an idea, that in honor of the Shabbos it’s more beautiful to wear fresh clothing. No! The Sages bring the possuk of the kohen wearing special clothes when he goes into the Mikdash (see Vayikra 6:4).
They bring a proof from the kohen in the Beis Hamikdash! You hear that parallel?! Just like a kohen, before he could enter the Mikdash he had to change his clothing, the same is by us; before we go into the Mikdash of Shabbos we get dressed up in bigdei Shabbos. It’s a remarkable teaching – on erev Shabbos we change our clothes because we are preparing to enter a Beis Hamikdash of time!
If you never thought about that before, tomorrow afternoon is a good time to start. When you’re putting on your Shabbos clothes, say, “I’m dressing myself in special garments now because I’m going in soon to the Mikdash of Shabbos.” Even if you do it one time in your life it’s something, but that’s how you should do every Friday afternoon. You’re a kohen entering into the Mishkan. And it’s not just a form of speech, a drush; you’re actually entering a Sanctuary.
Surrounded by Holiness
And so as the sun begins to go down you shouldn’t let that moment go lost. As the thick clouds of night begin to roll up over the heavens and the stars begin to appear, we should imagine that clouds of Shabbos are now coming up over the horizon and enveloping the world — we’re being surrounded by clouds of kedushah. I say ‘imagine’ but it’s actually the case. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is spreading a canopy of kedushah all around us.
That’s why when Shabbos comes – if you’re prepared for it – you tiptoe into the day. L’havdil elef havdalos if people were sitting in the theater, and somebody came in late he walks on tiptoe. Oooooh! With respect he walks. He’s afraid he might make the smallest sound and disturb the people in the holy pursuit of polluting their minds so he walks b’hadras kodesh. He shows that he understands where he is.
L’havdil elef havdalos that’s how we enter the Shabbos; on tiptoe. I’m not talking now about when you go into the synagogue. That’s something else; the kedushah of the beis knesses – we’re talking now about the kedushah of time. It means that even in your own home or when you’re walking on the street, on Kings Highway, and the Friday sun is setting you should feel like you’re walking into the Mikdash. Don’t look around at what all the ignorami, all the beheimos are doing. Don’t look in the store windows. You’re entering now the precincts of the Mikdash of Shabbos; you’re tiptoeing because for the next twenty-four hours you’re walking through a kedushah of time.
Shabbos Walks and Shabbos Talks
That’s why we say we don’t stride at a rapid pace on Shabbos. We walk differently; we walk with a slow gait and that reminds us that we are like kohanim in the Beis Hamikdash who walked eikev betzad agudal – they walked heel-to-toe because they were walking in a place of holiness. And we imitate them because we’re walking through a time of holiness.
Now you can better understand why in the ancient times Jews did not talk much on Shabbos. The Gemara says that when the sun went down on Friday evening they stopped talking. There was a sage who had an elderly mother and she was talking. So he said “Mother, it’s Shabbos!”, and she stopped immediately; she clammed up (Shabbos 113a Tosfos s.v. shelo). You hear that? A person checked his tongue when he remembered it was Shabbos.
Of course they said ‘Good Shabbos,’ and they were friendly to each other. They ate and drank and sang and davened and studied Torah and they were happy; but they didn’t gab. They didn’t talk d’varim b’teilim. How could you gab in the Beis Hamikdash?
Fear of Shabbos
In the ancient times when Shabbos came in, an awe fell upon the people. Very many people became different during the Shabbos. Even the am ha’aretz, sometimes the most crude and ignorant person, on Shabbos he refused to tell an untruth; he refused to lie on the Shabbos. We have records testifying to that.
The Gemara (Yerushalmi Demai 4:1) tells us that on Shabbos you can ask an am ha’aretz about his produce, “Did you separate a tenth from it?” and you could rely on his word. During the week you couldn’t be sure but on Shabbos you could trust him because eimas Shabbos al ha’am ha’aretz, the fear of Shabbos was on the am ha’aretz. He was afraid to say a falsehood on Shabbos.
You hear the old time am ha’aretz? He was afraid to say something not true on Shabbos. Halevai, we should be an am ha’aretz like that. It’s because he knew he was in a sanctuary: About the Beis Hamikdash it says, “You should fear My Sanctuary,” and so the Am Yisroel feared the Shabbos.
The Authentic Shomer Shabbos
Now I’m not saying we can demand from ourselves such a respect for Shabbos all of a sudden. But at least a little bit, we should try to acquire this frame of mind that Shabbos means a Sanctuary of Time.
You see, we’re not talking merely about keeping Shabbos. Of course that in itself is extremely important and valuable – to keep all of the dinim of Shabbos, the d’oraisas, the d’rabbanans – but that’s the bare minimum. We’re talking now about an entirely different type of Shabbos, a Shabbos that is capable of transforming our minds every week if we’ll approach it like the Mishkan it is. It’s a Shabbos Sanctuary that gives us the opportunity to create the Shabbos Mind.
